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Underground (Miscellaneous: Tunnels, Roads, Bunkers Etc.)

Belshazzar said:
It's just old basements. I've seen many more exactly like them.
Click to expand...

Replying to myself here...
Furthermore, you can just make out the tops of the boarded up basement windows on StreetView. Although, I have been in basements which had windows on side walls just to allow light to pass through more easily. There is also a modern yellow gas pipe in some of the photos.
I think the whole story has actually more to do with this...
Gloucester House currently has 22 of its 42 offices vacant.
Click to expand...
which was reported a couple of days before any tales of "lost streets".
 
Bodmin's ancient underground stream has been exposed by the town's roadworks
By Graham Smith Posted: September 28, 2016

15582022-large.jpg

Hundreds of years old - this stream has not been seen for years

People in Bodmin have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a centuries-old underground stream which has been uncovered by the town's current roadworks.

The medieval Bodmin Leat, built in the middle ages to drain the town, has been exposed by engineers working in Dennison Road and at Church Square.

The leat once provided drinking water and serves a number of ancient wells and mills – but was also sometimes little more than an open sewer and had a history of typhoid. Years ago it was covered over as the town grew – occasionally contributing to flooding problems in Bodmin if it got blocked.
The town suffered particularly bad flooding in 1976 and in 1993 and the blocked leat was held partly responsible.

Rising to the east of Bodmin, the leat is now a tributary to the River Camel to the west. The engineers now engaged on the roadworks knew the leat was there – but had to repair and strengthen it before making progress with the town's £7.5 million roadworks. The leat will be available to view for only a few days.

Cornwall councillor Ann Kerridge said many people had never seen the leat before. "It probably is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," she said. "The point is that the coverings in the leat were failing – they were 1930s concrete block with rusty iron flowing through them, and so the idea is that this will be a re-enforcement to make the leat safe underground, and not falling in so that it blocks the road for the foreseeable future."

Some local residents have even suggested that the leat should now be covered with plate glass, to remain visible and encourage interest in the town's history, but experts say this would not be practical for a 21st century highways scheme.

Alex Hoffen, senior construction manager for Cormac, said engineers used closed-circuit television to survey the leat before digging it up. "We're strengthening this section because the original construction was granite lintel, quite sub-standard for the 40-tonne loading of highways vehicles these days," he said. "There were not a lot of records so we had to do a thorough survey to find out what we were dealing with."

http://www.westbriton.co.uk/bodmin-...-s-roadworks/story-29758006-detail/story.html
 
I recently found out that they have uncovered a part of the River Roche in Rochdale town centre. It has been invisible for years. The linked page has a nice 360º view of the scene. This area was under flood-water last winter. Though I have been in the town within the last few weeks, I have not seen the river myself yet.

Uncovering the River Roche in Rochdale.
 
Oh I say, how fab! Looks gorgeous, and gives the place a heart. Rivers and bridges are soothing to be around, and as has been learned only too well, trying to control water instead of giving it space always ends badly.
 
There were two Rochdale scallies stranded on rocks in the river last week. Controlling the water is one thing . . . :eek:

Stockport did something similar, last year, uncovering an old bridge over the Mersey in the shopping precinct. :)
 
Great project! I wish somethings imilar could have been done with the Bodmin Leat....
 
Frideswide said:
Great project! I wish somethings similar could have been done with the Bodmin Leat....
Click to expand...
Well, it's only a stream, a bare trickle. And it needed reinforcing to take the weight of passing Juggernauts.

But never fear, go to Truro, Helston or Troon in Cornwall (and maybe other places too) and you'll still see water running down roadside 'kennels'.
 
An impressive underground network of tunnels and caves, curiously filled with vintage cars and forgotten World War II relics, lay forgotten under the ancient city of Naples.

By Elizabeth Warkentin
14 October 2016

In cities as old as Naples, residents have become used to unearthing classical Roman treasures, antiquated cisterns and other historic artefacts underneath their homes when it comes time to renovate.

More unexpected, however, was the accidental rediscovery in 2005 – when government geologists were checking the conditions of some quarries beneath the Monte di Dio neighbourhood – of an impressive underground network of ancient passageways, curiously filled with vintage cars and forgotten World War II relics, 150m below the Piazza del Plebiscito.

Constructed in 1853, the multilevel, 1,022sqm Bourbon tunnel network – today known as the Galleria Borbonica – was built by Ferdinand II of Bourbon, who, fearful of a revolution, needed a subterranean passageway large enough for troops and horses to travel from the Royal Palace to the military barracks.

Later, beginning in the 1930s, the tunnels were used as a warehouse for impounded and contraband vehicles since there was little available space in the tightly packed city. The passageways and cavernous chambers finally served as an air raid shelter during World War II, before being sealed off in the early 1950s to be forgotten forever.

But in 2012, Tonino Persico, a 90-year-old survivor who remembered hiding down here during the war, contactedNeapolitan geologist Gianluca Minin, who was leading the excavation of the rest of the tunnels, to alert him to the existence of a bomb shelter below the Palazzo Serra di Cassano, a palace behind the Piazza del Plebiscito.

It took three years for Minin and his team to clean the area of debris, but in December 2015, the Galleria Borbonica museum launched the deeply affecting Via delle Memorie tour that commemorates the lives of those who sought refuge here. ...

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20161011-an-ancient-world-concealed-underground
 
The BBC link is one of those International ones which is not available in the UK.

The Via delle Memorie link has plenty of images and a general search for Galleria Borbonica will bring up lots more.
 
Many years ago I was In the AFS and was told of but never saw that there were
tunnels under the Dean St Victoria Station area of Manchester, used for training
accessed from steel doors in the side of the river, some were just tunnels thought
to be used for moving animals to markets from the river without driving them through
the streets others were buried streets with the old buildings still there that had been
covered over for new buildings.
The Williomson tunnels in Liverpool now have a web site,
http://www.williamsontunnels.co.uk/view.php?page=about
Theres supposed to be a tunnel from the church to the tower at Top o The Cross
Radcliffe Lancs a mate tried to get access but he was refused the rumor being
the last person down there came back raving mad.
There are supposed to be tunnels from the Parish church in Bury to the Two Tubs
pub then to the sight of Bury Castle and the Athenaeum, never managed to gain
access but a level headed barmaid that used to work at the pub told me she had
seen a Cavalier walk out of one wall and into the other in the pub cellar.
There are rumors of tunnels around the sea front at Fleetwood, possibly to give access
from the now demolished rail station to the North Euston or some say to do with
smuggling but I have not been able to find out more.
Interesting things tunnels.
 
There has been some demolition going on around Cheetham's School of Music recently. I could see the top of an archway has been uncovered, perhaps a cellar or one of the tunnels which riddle the embankment in the Cathedral area.

I visited the Williamson tunnels a couple of years ago. They hope to excavate and make public much more of the workings but it is very much a shoe-string operation. They have sometimes hosted pop-concerts and Halloween parties down there. It's certainly worth a visit, with masses of bottles and crockery piled up. Williamson himself remains something of an enigma motivation-wise but he was almost certainly developing earlier structures where Liverpool's characteristic red sandstone had been mined.

I love tales of secret tunnels which attach themselves to churches and cathedrals. Uncovering any underground passage in the vicinity is taken as evidence it was part of a network. Subsidence, bricked up portals, dead ends just seem to encourage our dreaming. Pubs are also key features in the underground imagination; their cellars are for real and may be extensive. I suspect a lot of them were storage areas. Deansgate is supposedly riddled with such storage areas and Kendals' subway under the road was one I remember using in the days it also occupied what is now Waterstones on the other side. It has been closed for about twenty years to the public. The truth of these structures is undoubted though they have given rise to the tempting rumour that a subterranean road runs the whole length of Deansgate. Solid evidence of this is rather lacking, alas!

One underground street that is certainly real is the old Victorian shopping subway in Southport. Shops are rumoured to survive, though in the current over-supply of retail space, dreams of uncovering this curiosity seem further away than ever. :(
 
Man rescued from 50 foot mineshaft in St Just
By RWhitehouse | Posted: November 06, 2016

A man had to be rescued after becoming trapped in a 50ft mineshaft in St Just yesterday afternoon.
Firefighters were called to Cot Valley near St Just at around 3pm yesterday after reports of a man being stuck in a 50ft deep shaft.

A fire crew from St Just, a technical rescue officer, the rope rescue appliance, and a support pump from Tolvaddon all attended the scene to help rescue the man from the dry shaft.
The man was uninjured and had climbed down into the mineshaft but then found he was unable to get out.

A spokesman for the fire service said: "Firefighters used shacs packs and lines to carry out an assessment of the addit, before one firefighter was lowered into it to rescue the male.
"The male was rescued uninjured from the addit. Crews left the scene at 6pm."

http://www.cornishman.co.uk/man-res...t-in-st-just/story-29872033-detail/story.html

I blame Poldark! There have been several episodes covering his adventures and problems with his mine...
 
I was looking for this thread the other day, but didn't find it!
Thanks for finding it for me.

A feature on Liverpool's mysterious tunnels:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37868742

Oddly, one of those tunnels has a lot of china and bric-a-brac on display, with no explanation.
 
Inside Churchill's Secret Subterranean WWII Bunker in London
A new book examines the top secret wartime work underneath Whitehall.
by Anika Burgess
November 04, 2016

After the war, the Churchill War Rooms were left abandoned until 1984, when they were re-opened to the public by the Imperial War Museum. Secrets of Churchill’s War Rooms draws from personal accounts of staff, archival photographs and images of the restored rooms to provide a behind the scenes look at this once-secret space. AO has a selection of images.
Click to expand...

http://www.atlasobscura.com/article...1_7_2016)&mc_cid=af287e1fe9&mc_eid=8ac573a24d
 
Ok so, disclaimer - I haven't actually tried to use this, because it doesn't work on my phone. Anyone give it a try and let us know if it's any good?

The Guardian are trying their hand at virtual reality. This is (apparently) A virtual exploration of London's sewers.

"Take a journey through the subterranean labyrinth of London's Victorian sewers with urban explorer and geographer Bradley Garrett. The experience begins below the streets in one of London's lost waterways, the river Fleet, and continues through the blood sewers underneath Smithfield meat market and down to the floodgates of the river Thames."

http://www.theguardian.com/technolo...eality-by-the-guardian?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

It could be good!
 
Under Dublin. Shame about the idiotic MTV styling. It could have been a good doco. Turn the sound down and it improves. Wallies.
 
Man who used life savings to buy a field discovers ruins of an entire lost city under the ground
Lydia Willgress
3 January 2017 • 6:47pm

It is an unusual decision and, possibly, one that you might come to regret; using your life savings to buy an empty field.
But for one history fan it was a decision that paid off - after he dug it up and discovered it was home to a medieval city.
Stuart Wilson paid £32,000 for the 4.6-acre plot of land in 2004 after becoming convinced an ancient industrial town called Trellech - one of the largest medieval towns in Wales - may be buried underneath.

The 37-year-old had been digging in the field opposite following a tip- off from a local farmer when the land went up for auction.
He said he had looked at the area and realised it did not look typically agricultural, with large, square fields. Instead, he thought a "footprint" had been created by a structure under the ground.

After putting in the highest bid and winning the plot, the former toll booth worker had to live with his parents so he could finance the field and only managed to move back out last year.
But he said his decision was worth it, as his team have since found a moated mansion, around 400 square metres in size, and rare artefacts including a medieval flower pot.

"Out of all the decisions I have made in my life I would say buying the field was one of the good ones," he said.
"I have to say that even with all the problems that I have had or that may occur, it was definitely the right thing to do."

As well as living with his parents, Mr Wilson said he has also turned down jobs he may have otherwise applied for in order to keep working on the plot.
"I should have really bought a house and got out from my parents', but I thought: 'To hell with my parents, I will stay at home and I shall buy a field instead," he said. "People said 'you must be mad'."

Mr Wilson, who started excavating with a small dig in 2004, said the "quite large" settlement, which dates back to the 13th century, would have had a population of around 10,000 people, making it around a quarter of the size of London.

"This population grew from nothing to that size within 25 years," he said. "Now it took 250 years for London to get to 40,000 people, so we're talking a massive expansion.
"And that's just the planned settlement. The slums would have been quite numerous. There you would be talking even 20,000 plus. It's a vast area.
"If you're working in the fields you are living hand to mouth every single day - it's a really hard existence. Suddenly, a big industrial town comes here, this is a great opportunity for you.
"You up-sticks - to hell with your land - 'let's move to the industrial town where the opportunity is'."
He explained the settlement was the home of several Norman lords of the De Clare family, who used it as a place to mass produce iron.

Its precise location has not been known for hundreds of years after the city was lost to civil war and famine in the 17th century.
Archaeologists and university officials had supposedly located the industrial city near the present village of Trellech in Monmouthshire, but Mr Wilson disagreed.
"We knew from history that Trellech should have been the largest in the area," he said. "What they had found was not big enough."

In the last 15 years, Mr Wilson has been joined by hundreds of volunteers - both from the local area and, in the summer, from universities and colleges - as they unearthed what he now believes is the hidden city.
The excavation has been featured on BBC 4's Digging for Britain series, while Mr Wilson was also invited by the Cardiff Archaeological Society to speak at Cardiff University before Christmas.

Mr Wilson estimates the project has cost around £200,000 in total over the last 15 years. He is now seeking planning permission for an education centre.
He said: "As we take more on, there's a greater need to expand our campsite and while there are several campsites within a walkable distance, it would be better to have something here."

[Drone video]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...avings-buy-field-discovers-ruins-entire-lost/
 
rynner2 said:
Cornwall's mining history may belong in the past, but it refuses to stay there!
Road closed after mineshaft opens in St Day street
By wbchris | Posted: March 09, 2016

http://www.westbriton.co.uk/Road-cl...Day-street/story-28890711-detail/story.html#1

St Day is in an area that was heavily mined.
Click to expand...

In Japan they can repair humungous sinkholes, earthquake damage, etc, sometimes within about a day. But in Cornwall things are more leisurely...
Resident says contractor repairing hole in St Day road has worked 10 hours in 10 days
By wbchris | Posted: February 06, 2017

A fed-up resident has blasted sub-contractors brought in to repair a mineshaft which opened up in the road outside her home saying they have completed just 10 hours' work in 10 days.

Carol Williams lives in a property on Telegraph Street, St Day, where a mineshaft suddenly opened up in March of last year. Last month work got underway which will eventually result in the road being fully opened to traffic and nearby houses made safe.
However, frustrated at the slow pace of the work carried out so far, Mrs Williams has produced a log recording when sub-contractors turn up and knock off each day.
The detailed account shows six days when no site work was carried out, and other days when the site was closed before 4pm.

Carnon Contracting has been sub-contracted by Cornwall Council contractor Cormac Solutions Limited and Mrs Williams said she was fed up with having her life on hold and just wanted to get back to normal.
The construction site is located right outside of Mrs Williams' house and she can no longer access her drive as a result, instead having to park in an improvised space nearby.
"I cannot tell you how sick and tired I am of this saga and I just want them to hurry up and finish the work," she said.
"Cormac arrived on January 5 to set up the site and they were excellent, but the pace of work since then has been painful. Work is most definitely not progressing on a daily basis and the parking space they've temporarily given me is in front of a holiday home so I'm not sure what the owner is going to think when they come down in February half term.
"I appreciate there will be blips and some downtime but 10 hours' work in 10 days is very poor and I often see people stood around. I've rattled cages every day but so far very little has been done."

Mrs Williams has also been putting together a petition against the length of the works, which are predicted to last 10 weeks, saying that she hoped the 60-plus signatures she has collected already would help bring about an increase of urgency among the contractors.

Cornwall Live has approached Cormac Solutions Limited and Carnon Contracting for comment.

http://www.cornwalllive.com/residen...s-in-10-days/story-30114831-detail/story.html
 
It's l
rynner2 said:
Man who used life savings to buy a field discovers ruins of an entire lost city under the ground
Lydia Willgress
3 January 2017 • 6:47pm

It is an unusual decision and, possibly, one that you might come to regret; using your life savings to buy an empty field.
But for one history fan it was a decision that paid off - after he dug it up and discovered it was home to a medieval city.
Stuart Wilson paid £32,000 for the 4.6-acre plot of land in 2004 after becoming convinced an ancient industrial town called Trellech - one of the largest medieval towns in Wales - may be buried underneath.

The 37-year-old had been digging in the field opposite following a tip- off from a local farmer when the land went up for auction.
He said he had looked at the area and realised it did not look typically agricultural, with large, square fields. Instead, he thought a "footprint" had been created by a structure under the ground.

After putting in the highest bid and winning the plot, the former toll booth worker had to live with his parents so he could finance the field and only managed to move back out last year.
But he said his decision was worth it, as his team have since found a moated mansion, around 400 square metres in size, and rare artefacts including a medieval flower pot.

"Out of all the decisions I have made in my life I would say buying the field was one of the good ones," he said.
"I have to say that even with all the problems that I have had or that may occur, it was definitely the right thing to do."

As well as living with his parents, Mr Wilson said he has also turned down jobs he may have otherwise applied for in order to keep working on the plot.
"I should have really bought a house and got out from my parents', but I thought: 'To hell with my parents, I will stay at home and I shall buy a field instead," he said. "People said 'you must be mad'."

Mr Wilson, who started excavating with a small dig in 2004, said the "quite large" settlement, which dates back to the 13th century, would have had a population of around 10,000 people, making it around a quarter of the size of London.

"This population grew from nothing to that size within 25 years," he said. "Now it took 250 years for London to get to 40,000 people, so we're talking a massive expansion.
"And that's just the planned settlement. The slums would have been quite numerous. There you would be talking even 20,000 plus. It's a vast area.
"If you're working in the fields you are living hand to mouth every single day - it's a really hard existence. Suddenly, a big industrial town comes here, this is a great opportunity for you.
"You up-sticks - to hell with your land - 'let's move to the industrial town where the opportunity is'."
He explained the settlement was the home of several Norman lords of the De Clare family, who used it as a place to mass produce iron.

Its precise location has not been known for hundreds of years after the city was lost to civil war and famine in the 17th century.
Archaeologists and university officials had supposedly located the industrial city near the present village of Trellech in Monmouthshire, but Mr Wilson disagreed.
"We knew from history that Trellech should have been the largest in the area," he said. "What they had found was not big enough."

In the last 15 years, Mr Wilson has been joined by hundreds of volunteers - both from the local area and, in the summer, from universities and colleges - as they unearthed what he now believes is the hidden city.
The excavation has been featured on BBC 4's Digging for Britain series, while Mr Wilson was also invited by the Cardiff Archaeological Society to speak at Cardiff University before Christmas.

Mr Wilson estimates the project has cost around £200,000 in total over the last 15 years. He is now seeking planning permission for an education centre.
He said: "As we take more on, there's a greater need to expand our campsite and while there are several campsites within a walkable distance, it would be better to have something here."

[Drone video]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...avings-buy-field-discovers-ruins-entire-lost/
Click to expand...
It's like a triumphant episode of that detectorist TV show, but without metal detectors.
 
Scientists explore Edinburgh's mystery cave network
By Fiona StalkerBBC Scotland reporter

Media captionNew light shed on Gilmerton underground tunnels
New light is being shed on a mysterious network of tunnels and caves carved out of rock underneath Edinburgh.

Scientists using radar imaging equipment have discovered the ancient passageways at "Gilmerton Cove" extend much further than originally thought.

More chambers have also been uncovered during the research project, BBC Scotland has learned.

They caves lie under the former mining village of Gilmerton in the south of Edinburgh.

Druids and witchcraft
Experts have long been baffled by the origins of the underground passageways and chambers.

They include stone benches, tables and even a small chapel hand-carved out of the sandstone.

The network has been linked to druids, witchcraft, a gentlemen's drinking den and even Mary Queen of Scots.

_94673223_fullsizerender.jpg

Image captionGround penetrating radar equipment is being used to unlock ancient secrets
Now scientists from the universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh are using ground-penetrating radar equipment to map out what else may lie beneath.

The waves bounce off cavities or tunnels carved into the rock below.

The team has discovered that the subterranean network is at least double the size originally thought.

Simon Shackley, from Edinburgh University's School of Geosciences, said: "On the other side of Gilmerton Road there is a rather large chamber that is probably about 4m [13ft] deep."

"There also appear to be cavities in front of the cove and behind it - both about 2m deep".

_94674955_gilmerton_pix3.jpg

Image captionThe site is at least double the size originally thought, the researchers have found
_94674957_gilmerton_pix1.jpg

Image captionThe caves have been linked to witchcraft, druids and Mary Queen of Scots
Dr Richard Bates, of St Andrews University, told BBC Scotland the tunnels were "strange places" with very little detail about who used them or why they were built in the first place.

"Perhaps by the work we're doing - if we're getting a bigger picture we're mapping in a more extensive way the footprint of it - then what we're hoping is that will tell us something about the use," he said.

"If it's got lots more passageways or maybe it's only got these two single passageways, but they might be leading somewhere else. And where they're leading to could potentially tell us what these were used for."

The scientists are now putting together a proposal to undertake more detailed 3D imaging of the site to give them a better picture of the cave network.

Margaret Anne Dugan, owner of Rosslyn Tours and a guide at Gilmerton Cove, said: "It's incredibly exciting. We would love it if we could finally find out what lies beyond the blocked tunnels, if we could unlock those secrets and solve the mystery once and for all."

_94673224_img_8838.jpg

Image captionScientists have uncovered more chambers within the hidden network of tunnels at Gilmerton Cove
Click to expand...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-38991458
 
What I get when I try to copy the photo:
Men playing Pool...

But..

A group of real estate agents who live in underground bunkers play billiards at a local establishment.
And that's the caption on the webpage!

But it looks like snooker to me! :p
 
Last edited:
rynner2 said:
What I get when I try to copy the photo:
Men playing Pool...

But..

A group of real estate agents who live in underground bunkers play billiards at a local establishment.
And that's the caption on the webpage!

But it looks like snooker to me! :p
Click to expand...
If you look at the ball at the top left, it has a white circle with a number in it. So, either pool or billiards.
 
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